320 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



serrate ; lamina dorsalis infra medium producta sed non ad basin 

 folii descendens cellula) circiter 7-10 fx diam. (10-] 4 /x in var. 

 maclido). Capsiila miniitula suberecta vel omnino erecta sicca 

 deoperculato sub ore valde constricta ; operculo brevirostro cap- 

 sula circiter duplo vel triplo brevior. Flores masculi axillares 

 etiam terminales in ramulis lateralibus plus minusve elongatus. 



Habitat. On bare sandy calcareous soil about the entrance 

 to rabbit-holes on the scar-limestone, Heald Brow, near 

 Silverdale, West Lancashire, March, 190G. Albert Wilson k J. A. 

 Wheldon. 



From F. imsilhis var. madidus it may be distinguished by its 

 more robust and branching habit, more numerous leaves, smaller 

 leaf-cells, and shorter lid ; from F. imsillus (type) by the same char- 

 acters, except the lid, which is similar, and by the peculiarities of 

 the male inflorescence ; from F. incurvus and its var. tamarindi- 

 foUus by the straighter capsule, narrower leaves, and seta of a 

 paler red ; from F. virididus, which the leaves of the sterile shoots 

 strongly recall, by the inflorescence, and the narrow elongate 

 terminal pairs of leaves, and from all of them but the first-named 

 by the inferior lamina of the leaf never reaching the base. 



It is undoubtedly most closely allied to the var. madidiis, and 

 were these two autoicous or pseudo-dioicous plants separated from 

 F. pusillus, our plant would then be called F. minutulus var. Wil- 

 soni. Braithwaite {loc. cit.) at first united the var. madidus with 

 F. ptLsilkis, and wrote : " The small species of the incurv2LS group 

 present great variation in the position of the male flowers, and I 

 am satisfied that no reliable specific characters can be founded on 

 it." In a subsequent review of the genus in the same work he 

 recognised F. minutulus Sull.,its chief characters being the situa- 

 tion of the male flowers on long basal branches, or on separate 

 plants, its longer lid, and denser cells. These points seem hardly 

 sufficient, iii tliis genus, for the separation of a species of the first 

 magnitude, although under some circumstances they might have 

 weight. The var. Wilsoni, also, differs only in equally unstable 

 features, the principal ones being the length of the inferior lamina 

 and the peculiarities of the inflorescence. 



It is chiefly, and probably normally, autoicous. No synoicous 

 or paroicous flowers have been detected, but there is prima facie 

 evidence that it is on rare occasions dioicous, and to that extent 

 it may be considered to be heteroicous. The following five 

 variations of the inflorescence have been noted : — 



1. The normal and most frequent condition, in which the 

 plant is rather robust and well branched. The male flowers are 

 terminal on true branches and also axillary, the latter ones being 

 either almost sessile and budlike or shortly pedicellate, the shoots 

 having somewhat rhizinous bases. 



2. A rhizantoicous form, in which weak shoots bearing male 

 flowers arise from amongst the radical tomentum of the female 

 plant. 



3. A cladautoicous form like No. 1, but without axillary buds 

 or shoots. This may be simply a less vigorous state of No. 1. 



